As it ground its way along a snowmobile trail Monday night, the Tucker groomer felt like a combination carnival ride and bulldozer, its diesel engine straining against the 20-foot sledge behind us making pancakes out of moguls.

Greg “Term” (for The Terminator) Caruso of East Millinocket, outdoor operations manager for Northern Outdoors, was at the controls as we clawed our way up and out of the Kennebec River valley at The Forks. I was riding shotgun at the invitation of Russell Walters, president of the company. I was interested in taking a peek behind the scenes of snowmobiling. In particular I wanted to see what the folks who groom the trails do to make it happen for the 80,000-plus Mainers and 20,000 nonresidents who enjoy the winter activity.

If you’ve been around awhile, you can remember the birth of snowmobiling in Maine, when there were no trails to speak of and grooming didn’t exist. Then came trails and with that the desire to make them passable throughout the winter. Grooming was born, but it went through an awkward adolescence. Early grooming consisted of snowmobiles pulling all manner of contraptions behind them in an attempt to flatten out or pack the snow’s surface. Narrow and bumpy trails often foiled these feeble attempts.

As years passed, the trail network burgeoned into the statewide Interconnecting Trail System and grooming matured into a seven-nights-a-week operation at many locations throughout the state. The cost of purchasing and operating today’s grooming machinery, which sells for $100,000 apiece, is on an escalator. The state partially reimburses clubs and municipalities for trail grooming.

Scott Ramsay at the Department of Conservation has the task of deciding how the reimbursement fund is allocated. Money for this comes from snowmobile registrations and a portion of the gasoline tax. He told me there are two methods of reimbursement – one to individual clubs, the other to municipalities. There are 260 grants to individual snowmobile clubs which amount to about $2,850 each for a total of $625,000. Another $1.6 million is disbursed to municipalities which in turn reallocate funds to businesses and snowmobile clubs that groom trails. These clubs and businesses apply to the town in the fall in anticipation of expenses that will be incurred over the winter. Expenses for maintaining the 110-mile trail network in the area of The Forks, for example, are estimated this season to run $10,000 for new trail development, $67,000 for grooming, and $7,000 for maintenance ($84,000 total). Northern Outdoors, New England Outdoor Center, and the local club, Kennebec Scenic Snowriders, do the work.

They usually figure on about $40 to $45 per hour of grooming, which may sound like a lot, but really doesn’t cover the expenses of owning and operating a $100,000 piece of equipment for three or four months a year, Ramsay said. Reimbursement typically covers about 60 percent of the true cost of trail maintenance, he adds. The balance must be made up by donations. For businesses such as Northern Outdoors, the remainder, which could be $20,000 or more this season, is a cost of doing business.

And while that sounds hefty, consider that the increased interest in snowmobiling over the past 20 years has allowed Northern Outdoors and other companies that started as rafting companies to become year-round operations. Suzie Hockmeyer and Jim Yearwood, vice presidents of Northern Outdoors, told me snowmobiling has allowed them to keep 50 people employed over the winter (they have 150 in the summer). And winter activities help bring customers into the area. Over the past three weeks they have been at or near their 150-guest maximum.

Grooming on The Forks trail network is done nightly. Northern Outdoors’ two trail groomers take care of about 60 miles of trail. The Kennebec Scenic Snowriders, and New England Outdoor Center also groom, and on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings all 110 miles of the system are groomed, according to Yearwood.

On Monday evening as Caruso and I bumped and clawed our way up the steep hillside out of the Kennebec Valley, I began to get a feeling for what this job was about. First off, you’re out there on your own, nothing but the growl of the diesel and the clunking of the four tracks churning beneath you. Just ahead of your feet and maybe 3 feet down is a plow blade used to “roll” the deeper snow (it takes the air out of it) or shave off berms and occasionally push an errant downed tree off the trail.

Caruso demonstrated the joystick controlling the plow’s six-way action as we crested the hill, all the while eyeing and controlling the drag behind us. Too much bite on the plow combined with too deep a set on the drag blades can bog the Tucker down.

The drag, with six angled blades each pushing snow inward from the sides of the trail, can be raised or lowered by hydraulically adjusting the tongue height – lower for more bite, higher for less. If you get stuck or you’re on pavement, a pair of wide tires at the very back can be lowered to carry the weight of the sledge. With wheels up, a big flat pan at the bottom rear of the sledge acts like an iron flattening out the snow scraped up by the blades, leaving a smooth surface behind.

The Tucker’s four headlamps (two atop the cab, two at the base of the windshield by your feet) and two rear-facing lights give it an eerie appearance as it bumps along the trail kicking up snow. From inside with a view forward limited by the headlights’ short range, I imagined this must be what it was like being in a bathysphere – except for the racket.

After maybe an hour Caruso stopped the machine to let me drive. We’d covered about 5 miles. After coming out of the valley on a local connector from Northern Outdoors, we hooked up with ITS 89 and groomed to a three-way intersection. To the right was ITS 87, a 30-mile trail to Greenville that Caruso would groom later. To the left via another local connector was my vehicle. For an instant I thought about making the longer trip, but the reality of six or more hours of bumping and bouncing along soon sank in and I opted for the shorter route.

Operating this beast sounds simple – until you try it. It doesn’t steer like the family SUV. Instead of the tracks pivoting like the front wheels of your car, the front and rear axles pivot, much like the front one on your old red wagon. With the drag lowered it took all I could do to keep the machine aimed down the trail.

I was constantly winding the steering wheel and couldn’t begin to think about trying to keep an eye on the drag in the rear-view mirror, let alone manipulate the plow. Every time I did look back, the drag seemed to be headed in a different direction than us. Thanks to an automatic transmission, I didn’t have to do any shifting. And braking? Not much to worry about with all that weight behind dragging on the snow. But there is a brake pedal should you want or need to use it.

Caruso would spend the night aboard this rig as he has most nights for five winters or more, grinding down the highs and filling in the lows. In all he’d cover nearly 60 miles, he said. But first we’d groom another five miles to cross the Kennebec River so he could drop me off at Berry’s Store to pick up my Jeep.

Tuesday morning Yearwood and I returned to the trail to see what riders thought of Caruso’s work. It’s not easy snagging a passing sled, but Curt Dakin, 41, of Sutton, Mass., and Roger Richard, “30-something,” of Millbury, Mass., stopped and were quick to compliment Caruso’s work. Both avid sledders for 20 years, they’d come to Maine for a week’s worth of sledding as they have for years. Maine’s trail network and excellent trails, they said, keep them coming back. (Dakin’s sled had broken down at Northeast Carry the day before and he was riding a rental sled.) That morning the pair had ridden to The Forks from Greenville and planned to explore the area’s trails.

Another group of about 10 snowmobilers who’d come north from the Bingham area stopped briefly. There were some disparaging remarks about trails south of The Forks, but the consensus was that The Forks system was in pretty good shape.

Jeff Strout can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.